"The Bouncing Ball"


Emergent Literacy

-Susan Ross

Rationale:

Children need to understand that each sound in a word has its own letter or letter combination—every phoneme has a grapheme.

In this lesson, children will learn ways to recognize /b/. They will learn to identify the sound /b/ in spoken words by learning a tongue twister, hand motions, and a symbol for the letter b.

Materials:

One basketball

Primary paper and pencil

Poster with "Billy's ball bounced off the basket."

Cut out a rectangle on card stock and tape to Popsicle stick (the rectangle should be like a window, or picture frame and big enough to frame the B's on your poster board)

Class set of cut-out basket balls (on card stock), and glued on to Popsicle sticks

Picture of the letter b, with a basketball as the round part. (example at bottom of page)

Coloring worksheet with the letter symbol (same as above) (one per student)

Pat-A-Cake poem (on chart paper)

Book: Seuss, Dr. Dr. Seuss's ABC Book. 1963. Random House Inc.

Procedures:

  1. INTRO:

Say: Let's sing our ABC's.

Say: Every letter we just sang has its own sound. Today we are going to learn the sound of the letter b.

  1. Say: Raise your hand if you have ever bounced a ball. (Use the basketball now. Show the students how you dribble the ball.)

Say: Now I want you to practice dribbling an imaginary ball.

Say: When I say "bounce" and "ball", what do you notice about both of those words? (Emphasize /b/ when you say them)

  1. Say: Now we are going to learn a tongue twister. (hold up poster board)

Read for the class: "Billy's ball bounced off the basket."

Say: Now let's say it together. (Repeat four times)

Say: Now when we say it, I want you to dribble your imaginary ball every time you hear /b/. (Model for them, emphasizing /b/.)

  1. Using the rectangle on the Popsicle stick, have one student come up and frame the

words with /b/ in them. Let a few of them try while the others dribble their ball.

  1. Write a sample sentence on the board from the Dr. Seuss book. (the B page)

Model reading this to the students. Pretend to struggle with the words with /b/.

Explain that this will help them to remember that b has its own sound. Whenever they come to the letter b, they can think of a basketball to remember the sound.

  1. Using their primary paper and a pencil, the students will practice writing the letter b.

Model for the students on the board or on a big piece of paper. Show the students the

picture with the basketball as the round part of the letter. Explain that you draw

a line starting at the roof and go down to the ground, then you b-b-bounce up and

around to make a basketball shape. (have them write it about 6 or 7 times)

  1. Read Pat-A-Cake to the students and have them raise their basket balls when they

            hear /b/. (taken from http://www.first-school.ws/t/nrpatacake.html)

  1. Assessment: (use basketballs on Popsicle sticks here)

Sit down with students individually.
Say: Raise your basketball when you hear /b/.

Say these words slowly, while watching the student's response:

Bounce, ice-cream, ballet, rob, candy, grab, sing, golf, bird

Say: Now I am going to say two words at a time.  I want you to tell me in which word you hear /b/.

Bat or cat

Sing or bing

Bad or lad

Grab or great

          Sad or bud

       9.  For more reinforcement, let students color the "b is for basketball" worksheet.

References:

For more ideas on teaching the letter b, visit:

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphaletter/b.htm

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Example of letter b coloring sheet:(Right click and "save image as" for yourself)

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